Quartz resonator systems are used for timing applications in many electronic devices, including cell phones, automotive systems, game consoles, broadband communications, and almost any other digital product available. As quartz resonators decrease in size to meet the size constraints of new applications, the unit cost of quartz resonators increases while their reliability decreases. This is because some manufacturing processes become increasingly problematic with decreasing size, such as the formation and testing of a quartz resonator's hermetic seal. In addition, the reduction in size of quartz resonators may not even be practicable beyond a certain minimum size, given the mechanical constraints of the manufacturing processes currently in use.
Micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, are also used as resonators for electronic devices. MEMS include devices ranging in size from the micrometer to the millimeter scale. NEMS devices are similar to MEMS, but significantly smaller in size—from the sub-micrometer scale down to the nanometer scale. MEMS and NEMS are distinguished from comparably sized electronic devices, such as integrated circuits, in that MEMS and NEMS include both electrical and moving mechanical components that are generally fabricated together using micro-machining techniques.
One feature of MEMS devices in general, and MEMS resonator systems in particular, is that as MEMS resonators decrease in size, the unit cost of each MEMS resonator decreases, while the reliability of the smaller MEMS device is largely unaffected. This is because more MEMS devices can be manufactured on a given silicon substrate as the size of the MEMS device is reduced, thus defraying the per-substrate manufacturing cost over a larger number of MEMS devices. And, as long as manufacturing design rules are not exceeded, the performance and reliability of smaller MEMS devices is generally as robust as that of larger MEMS devices. Therefore, due to these cost- and performance-related reasons, there is an on-going effort to develop MEMS packaged timing references to replace quartz, ceramic, solid-state, and other types of packaged timing references in numerous electronic device applications.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a chip package for MEMS and NEMS resonator systems that allows for the replacement of conventional packaged timing references in existing applications and enables the use of MEMS packaged timing references in applications that are impractical for quartz and other types of packaged timing references.